ACME x OSE Fellowship

Happy 50th Acme – here’s to the next 50 years of supporting artists!

We are so delighted to be partnering with Acme to launch the Acme x OSE Fellowship, as part of the OSE Alumni Development Programme, and announce it’s inaugural fellow – Shamica Ruddock

During a six-month work/live fellowship at Acme’s Fire Station building, Shamica will be actively involved in mentoring three early career artists on the Acme Alternative Pathways Awards. 

Acme is such an important support system for artists and to have a recent Alum be part of Acme will be such an incredible opportunity to develop their own practice, whilst also supporting the next generation of artists who will be mentored by them.” – Polly Brannan, OSE Artistic Director

Upcoming Partnership Event:

  © Photo courtesy of Elora Kadir

Time, Labour, Process

Dita Hashi, Elora Kadir, Natasha Muluswela
Curated by Shamica Ruddock

Location: Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, 1 Bard Road, London, W10 6TP
Private view: Thursday 15 June 2023, 6-9pm
Running: Friday 16 – Friday 23 June 2023
Open: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm

An exhibition of works by Acme’s Alternative Pathway Awards recipients, Dita Hashi, Elora Kadir and Natasha Muluswela, produced during their time together in an Acme studio as part of Acme’s Alternative Pathway Awards.

Spanning moving image, installation and pencil drawings, the works address themes of labour, uprising, bureaucracy, violence and migration. Time, Labour, Process celebrates the three artists’ shared experiences and individual practices, having been brought together by the Alternative Pathway Awards. A Genesis Kickstart Fund project, supported by the Genesis Foundation, the awards provided space, time and support for Hashi, Kadir and Muluswela to work on their own practices, culminating with this group exhibition at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop.

Artist and exhibition curator, Shamica Ruddock, mentored the three artists as part of the Acme x OSE Fellowship, in partnership with Open School East.

Elora Kadir is an artist based in London. She uses a variety of media such as drawing, photography, video and installation, to focus on her lived experience with disability and how this informs her daily encounters. She recently completed an MFA at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.

“For me, bridging the gap between art school and professional practice is really important […] In my first few weeks of receiving the award, I’ve already felt a lot more informed about just how diverse London’s art scene is and how my art practice might fit in.” Elora Kadir

Dita Hashi (b. 1998) is an artist based between London and Paris. She works across moving image, installation and writing which she uses to explore value, surplus, labour, love, flesh, riots and (the impossibility of) citizenship.

“Like most working people in the capital, especially those from working class or poor backgrounds, we can feel the crisis of housing and space in the city and we know how it affects our lives, both professionally and personally.Opportunities like the Alternative Pathway Awards are important to artists as they meet the fundamental need of having workspace in which to work!” Dita Hashi

Natasha Muluswela is a visual artist whose intricately detailed pencil drawings explore the diversity of beauty and body positivity whilst simultaneously shaking off the sexualisation of the female body. Additionally, her work touches on socio-political issues such as racism, the marginalisation and discrimination of Black people. Natasha explores what it means for Africans to take up space in a Eurocentric society, away from the Diaspora.

“Opportunities like this are so vital to an early artist’s career because it’s very difficult to navigate the art world by yourself. Having guidance and an oversight of other creatives and mentors means that not only can you fully immerse yourself in your work, but you also have the support of the Acme
community and the financial backing to do it.”
Natasha Muluswela

Shamica Ruddock (Curator) is an artist-researcher with interests in West African and Caribbean folk storytelling practices, Black sound culture, Maroon histories and Black futurity. Sonic strategising and speculative
world building are also important points of departure. Shamica has exhibited work with the South London Gallery and Tate Britain, screen films at Bertha DocHouse and the Barbican, and held residencies at Taipei Artist Village and the Black Cultural Archive in partnership with Languid Hands.

Shamica Ruddock was an Open School East Associate in 2020.

Photo cred: Andy Stagg, 2022

Acme x OSE Fellowship

As part of Acme’s 50 opportunities for 50 years and in partnership with Open School East (OSE), the Acme x OSE Fellowship intends to create links between artists at different stages of their careers and explore the benefits of knowledge exchange. During this six-month work/live fellowship at Acme’s Fire Station building, an OSE alumni artist is actively involved in mentoring three early career artists on the Acme Alternative Pathway Awards.

Acme

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Acme is a charity based in London which provides affordable studios, work/live space, and a programme of artist support. Acme is the single largest provider of permanent affordable artist studios in England, supporting over 800 individual artists across 15 buildings in Greater London each year. To mark its first half century and look ahead to many more years of supporting artists in necessitous circumstances, Acme has embarked upon a year-long programme of events, awards and wider initiatives.